Dennis selectmen reconsider firefighter funding

Friday

Sep 29, 2017 at 6:11 AM

By Susan Vaughn

Voters in Dennis will have two options for increased fire department staffing after the selectmen Tuesday night reconsidered a move they made last week. Selectmen decided to add an additional article to the Oct. 17 Special Town Meeting warrant that would support hiring four more firefighters to be paid under a federal SAFER grant.

Last week the board approved a finance committee recommendation to place an article on the same warrant that would pay $175,772 for four new firefighters out of town funds from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2018. Fire Chief Mark Dellner had recommended the town hire eight full-time firefighters for which funding had already been guaranteed through a $1.3 million federal SAFER grant over three years. After last week’s decision, he said he would ask FEMA, which funds the grant, if it would grant the funds for four firefighters instead.

But the selectmen were convinced by some strong arguments Tuesday to go for the full contingent of eight firefighters. The fire chief, a former deputy chief, the firefighters’ union president and a local citizen. made pitches to the board in support of eight additional firefighters.

Paul Prue, a former deputy fire chief who served the department for 46 years, said that hiring four firefighters would not be enough to adequately staff Station 2 in Dennis Village, which has only two firefighters per shift. When the two firefighters at the station make an ambulance call, it leaves the station unmanned, sometimes for four to six hours a day, he said. One additional firefighter per shift would make no difference, he said, because two staff are required to respond to calls.

“There is definitely a serious and urgent need to staff Station 2,” Prue said. Even with backup from Station 1, the response time is not what it should be, he said. He recommended that the voters have a chance to decide on the staffing. With 5,100 calls per year from Station 2, he said eight firefighters would finally bring staffing to where it should be.

Dellner added that hiring eight firefighters would guarantee that Station 2 would never be empty. He also said by taking that action, the town would save $100,000 a year in overtime pay. “This has nothing but positives,” he said. “I need those firefighters and we need them as a town.”

Wayne Conlon, president of the firefighters’ union, questioned the finance committee's recommendation to pay $340,000 a year for four firefighters for three years. He urged the board to consider hiring the eight firefighters and the finance committee to reconsider its decision.

Resident Connie Mooers also recommended the decision should go to the voters, and questioned why the town would throw away a $1 million grant. She also used the example of how quick response time saved her sister from being paralyzed. “Response is so important,” she said.

Selectman Bob Mezzadri said he was shocked to find that 46 to 53 percent of the time, the Fire Department was not meeting the recommended safe response time. “It could lead to people’s lives,” he said. “I would like to see the grant for eight.”

Selectwoman Sheryl McMahon stressed the importance of fast response time and asked Dellner for the response times from Station 2. He said it is seven to 10 minutes to a lot of areas on the north side and longer if mutual aid is called.

McMahon also countered Selectman John Terrio’s concerns that the town is facing some big expenses in the near future. She said the wastewater issues can’t be dealt with now and the result of the vote on the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School reconstruction is not known. She also asked what would be the point of a new northside fire station if there aren’t enough firefighters to staff it.

Selectman Chairman Paul McCormick said he had to explain to several people after the previous week’s vote why the town would give up $1.3 million.

McMahon moved the placement of the additional article on the Town Meeting warrant that would appropriate $175,772 for four more firefighters, contingent on the passage of a Proposition 2 ½ override. The article will also ask for $40,000 from free cash to training and equipment beginning Jan. 1, 2018. The vote was 4-0 with Cleon Turner absent.

The finance committee article voted last week would be for the same amounts, but they would come out of the town’s operating budget without an override. If the SAFER grant is funded, the town would pay for 25 percent of the firefighters’ salaries for the first two years and 65 percent in the third year. Dellner said the town is taking steps to meet the fourth-year funding.